Police: Hudson Nephew Likely Killed In SUV

(AP) Chicago police detectives think the 7-year-old nephew of actress Jennifer Hudson was alive when he left the house where his uncle and grandmother were killed last week and likely was shot in the SUV where his body was later found, a police official said Thursday.

The police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the case publicly, would not elaborate on when detectives think the boy might have died.

Police spokeswoman Monique Bond said she could not comment about the official's statements.

The bodies of 57-year-old Darnell Donerson and 29-year-old Jason Hudson were discovered in their South Side home Friday afternoon, and the body of Julian King was found inside an SUV on the city's West Side on Monday morning.

All the victims were shot, authorities have said.

Nobody had been charged as of Thursday afternoon, but the estranged husband of the boy's mother remained in custody on a parole violation. Publicly, police have characterized 27-year-old William Balfour, a convicted felon, as a "person of interest," but the source said he was the only suspect in the slayings.

Meanwhile, a funeral home announced Thursday that services for Hudson's mother, brother and nephew will be held on Monday morning. The service at Apostolic Church of God on Chicago's South Side will be closed to the public.

Hudson and her sister, Julia Hudson, said Thursday they have established the Hudson-King Foundation to provide food, clothing and shelter, along with grief counseling, to relatives of victims of violent crime.

It is the only charitable foundation the sisters have established in their family's memory, according to a statement released from Jennifer Hudson's publicist.

Also on Thursday, Police Superintendent Jody Weis said that a gun found Wednesday in a vacant lot around the corner from where the SUV had been parked was a .45 caliber weapon.

Preliminary tests suggest that the murder weapon was a .45 caliber gun, but scientific tests were being conducted to determine if the weapon found in the lot is the murder weapon, Weis said.

The weapon has been turned over to the Illinois State Police crime lab, and will be compared with shell casings found at the Hudson home on the city's South Side, he said.

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